A Different Perspective
by Let's Call Her The Tarryn
Summary: Lizzie stays home from school and is recruited by Casey to find something to hold against Derek. But neither of them ever would have guessed what Lizzie would find, and by the end of the day they're seeing everything in a different perspective. Two-Shot
1. Chapter 1

Let's get this story party started! Uh-huh. Uh-huh! Lol

.I own nothing.

Okay, enjoy!!!!

x—x

"Lizzie, what are you still doing in your pajamas? It's almost time to go to school." Casey asked, pouring a glass of orange juice for herself, while eying her younger sister curiously. Lizzie was, indeed, still in her pajamas, and sitting on a stool at the end of the table in the kitchen.

"Mom doesn't want me to go to school. She says I'm warm, and thinks I have a fever. And I made the mistake of coughing in front of her. I feel fine! But you know how mom gets." Lizzie said.

"Oh, that sucks." Casey said, lifting the glass toward her lips, but out of nowhere, Derek swooped in and grabbed the glass from her hands, passing her while he chugged down the orange juice. He went to the cupboard and grabbed a bag of fruit snacks, then placed the empty glass back in front of Casey, all so quickly that Casey couldn't reply until the damage was already done.

"Ugh! You jerk. Get your own damn orange juice next time!" Casey glared at the empty glass and Derek, knowing that there would be no orange juice for her that morning since the glass had contained the last of the carton.

"Hey, I was just following your directions." Derek shrugged popping a fruit snack into his mouth, and leaning against the counter.

"Oh, yeah. Because I remember telling you to take my glass of fortifying orange juice." Casey snapped.

"No. But you did tell me to stop drinking from the carton. And I just did not want to deal with that 'Oh, that's disgusting, Derek' rant that you go on every morning." He said. "Plus, I saw the carton in the trash, and, hey, I wanted some orange juice." He gave his Derek Venturi smirk. The smirk that made all the girls swoon. Except Casey. It made Casey want to knee him in the groin after smacking him across the face, to wipe the smirk off his smug face.

"You pompous, self-centered, son-of-a-bitch." Casey murmured quietly to herself.

Derek heard her, but decided to ignore her, and take notice to Lizzie.

"What's with you kid?" he asked.

"My mom won't let me go to school." she sighed.

"Lucky you." Derek winked, before leaving the kitchen.

"_Lucky you_." Casey contorted her face, mocking Derek.

"Man, I have P.E. Today. I was going to beat Nikki Callahan in dodge ball. That girl need a nice hit in the head."

"Sounds like Derek." Casey said.

She sat fuming over Derek. He was so insufferable, and he did whatever he could to get under her skin. Why her? She hadn't even seen him yet that morning, but the first thing he does is something to make her mad. He couldn't just go in and out of the kitchen without disturbing her. He had to do something.

Then a light bulb clicked in her head, an idea flashing like a neon sign through her head.

"Oh, my God. Lizzie. I have the best idea.

What!?" Lizzie exclaimed, once Casey explained her idea.

"It's perfect! You sneak into his room while we're all at school. Just snoop around everywhere. Everywhere. You're bound to find something I could use against him!" Casey said, excitedly.

"No. No. No way. Not going to happen. No." Lizzie said. She was not about to go search the entire of Derek's room. She had just snooped around a bit once, and the guy-ness of the place had creeped her out enough to last her a life time away from his room.

"Lizzie, come on! We've never embarrassed Derek in a way that didn't help him. We need to find something good. Something personal and private, he wouldn't want anyone else to know. Something he'd keep confined in his room!" Casey explained.

"But Casey! You don't understand that room. It's s disgusting. It's Derek's!"

"Please! Please, please, please! Pretty, pretty please!" Casey pleaded.

Lizzie looked uncertainly at her sister. She didn't want to, but she couldn't stand her sister's begging.

"...Fine." Lizzie sighed, defeated.

"Oh, thank you, thank you! So much!" Casey said, giving her sister a hug.

"Yeah." Lizzie scrunched up her face. "Your welcome."

Lizzie sat on the top steps of the stairs, holding her chin up with her hands. _I can't believe I said yes. _She thought as she tried to will herself into going into Derek's room, while also trying to think of a really good excuse to tell Casey why she couldn't when she got home.

But she couldn't think of one.

Casey and Derek had left for school a half-hour ago. Her mom had taken Marti somewhere, and George was off running some errands. Her mom had made him a list.

They trusted her alone, especially since they all felt she was sick, even though she felt fine. Nora had made her the little sick packages that she always made when either Casey or she was sick. Orange juice, ibuprofen, two cans of chicken noodle soup, ect. Things they could use themselves when they were sick, since Nora usually never had the right time to take care of them herself, which she felt bad about, thus resulting in the sick packages.

So she sat there, nervous and frustrated that she gave in so easily, but she knew she was going to do it.

So she got up and went to Derek's bedroom door. Her hand hesitated when it went for the handle, but the she forced herself to grasp it and open.

She stepped inside and closed the door. The room was a mess. Laundry everywhere, on the floor, on the bed, sticking out from under the bed, and flowing out of the closet. There were random papers on the ground near the trash, like he'd tried to shoot them, but they missed, and he never bothered to pick them up. There were a couple plates, and cd's that were out of there cases.

"Ugh." Lizzie said out loud.

The first place she went to was the closet. She used a hockey stick to sift through the clothes. Then she used it to move around things that were on a shelf in the closet. Finding nothing, she moved on to under the bed. Nothing but disgusting things like socks, and half eaten pizza slices. She made the large mistake of looking under the bed, and found some questionable pieces of reading material.

She searched the table tops, under pillows, inside of books, on the other shelves in his room, and everywhere she could possibly think of, and found nothing of interest, and nothing that surprised her, and definitely wouldn't surprise Casey, and most of wouldn't embarrass Derek.

When she was about to give up, she realized she hadn't gone through his drawers. She made her way warily toward them. The first drawer held nothing of importance. A bunch of band t's. The second drawer, she refused to go through, since it was his underwear drawer. But the last drawer was filled with papers, and notebooks.

She picked up a few and skimmed through it. Lyrics, and little notes he wrote. A couple mentioned a girl, but no name was revealed. Still nothing that meant enough. She shoved a notebook back into the drawer, frustrated. The notebook hit against the back of the drawer and that's when Lizzie noticed it shift slightly.

Lizzie opened the drawer above and examined it. Then she did the same with the top drawer, and realized that the first two drawer's backs ended a bit farther back than the last drawer. _A false back? _Lizzie thought to herself._ Why would Derek have a false back to his drawer? ...Unless he's hiding something!_

Lizzie moved her fingers along the edges of the drawers back, until she found a place for her fingers to push it out. Lizzie heart beat faster as she pulled the back out, wondering what Derek could be hiding.

It was a tape.

A tape to Derek's video camera.

Lizzie took it and went downstairs, grabbing the video camera along the way. She hooked the video camera to the tv downstairs. She was slightly scared of what might be on the tape, seeing that it was Derek, and the possibilities were seemingly endless. But she willed herself to play it. And after less than 10 seconds of it playing, her jaw dropped.

"Oh. My. God."

x—x

I was originally going to make this a oneshot. But then I got to this point, and found such a spectacular cliffhanger! So you shall wait! Until the second part of this twoshoter!

Review, Loves.

-Tarryn


	2. Chapter 2

Okay, part two. Just to know, I have no idea how video cameras work, so I'm just guessing, okay. But I'm probably completely wrong.

.I own nothing.

x—x

Lizzie was pacing the length of the living room. She made sure to plop down on the couch, chair, and sometimes even the floor whenever someone passed the living room. Ever since her mother had gotten home, and George, after picking up Marti, Lizzie had been trying very hard to look as normal as possible. She mustered up a cough a couple times to satisfy her mom. She was just trying to contain and control herself until Casey got home.

Every once in a while she would pat the pocket in her pajama bottoms just to make sure that the tape was still there. And then her heart would beat a little faster thinking that the tape was even there. That it even existed. It seemed completely insane. But it was there.

Lizzie heard the front door open and close, and she immediately rushed, almost in a run, toward the door. She barely was able to skid to a stop, almost knocking into who had just entered the house.

"You don't seem very sick to me, kid." Derek said.

Lizzie froze, looking up at Derek. Derek, who was definitely not Casey.

"Oh, um, yeah, um, bye!" Lizzie's words stumbled over each other, as she made a dash to the living room, in a fashion a supposed to be sick girl wouldn't do.

Derek shook his head and looked at her like she was crazy while he passed the living room, and then made his way upstairs. Frankly, Lizzie could care less if Derek thought she was in need of a straight jacket. As long as he was somewhere else in the house. It was just a little weird to look at him, and think he made the tape.

When she heard the door open again, it took all her strength to keep from jumping up and running toward the door again. Turns out it was only Edwin.

"Hey, missed you at school today." Edwin said. "We had a big math test, too."

"Eww." Lizzie said.

"Yeah. Well do you want to hang out?" Edwin asked.

"Umm, no, I actually do feel kind of bad, so, yeah."

"Oh, okay. Talk to you later, then." Edwin said, before also running up the stairs.

Lizzie sat on the couch, tapping her foot for five minutes, that seemed like forever, until she finally heard the door open again. She knew it had to be Casey, so she jumped up and scrambled to the door.

Once again, she barely missed knocking into someone.

"Hey, slow down Liz." Casey said.

"Casey, Casey I-"

"Oh, did you find anything! Oh, God this is going to be so good!" Casey prattled. "Come on! Tell me! What did you find??"

"Come on, Casey." Lizzie said. And she started to walk, and Casey followed. They walked past the living room, and up the stairs. Lizzie held open Casey's bedroom door, and Casey went in. Then Lizzie closed the door behind her when she went in too.

"Okay, seriously. What did you fine. Oh, it must be big!" Casey said, excitedly.

"Bigger than you think." Lizzie said.

Casey sat on her bed, waiting, expectantly. Lizzie pulled the tape from her pocket, and raised it in front of her.

"A tape." Casey said, looking at it. "Should I get ready to shut my eyes?"

"Casey. Whatever you're thinking is on this tape, you are absolutely, and completely wrong." Lizzie said, knowingly.

"What is out of the imagination when it come to Derek?"

"Oh, you'll see." Lizzie said.

She walked over to the little t.v. That Casey had on her dresser, and quickly hooked everything up. Then she went to sit next to Casey.

The screen flickered slightly, as the camera was brought into focus. Derek's face appeared on the screen. He was sitting on his bed, with the camera set up in front of him. He reached out and adjusted the camera a little more, and then sat back.

First, he looked hesitant, as if he didn't want to start, but he did. "Everyone knows me as Derek Venturi, the popular guy who gets lots of dates, and has every girl throwing herself at me. That's how I saw myself too. Until the one girl who entered my life that I wanted to see me, was the one girl who wanted nothing to do with me..." He trailed off.

Suddenly, the screen changed from Derek. Great Escape by Boys Like Girls could be heard in the background. And then, Casey came on screen. Casey trying to push the camera out of her face, laughing. Casey running at the camera and Derek. Casey studying, and then rolling her eyes at the camera, when she realized Derek was there. And then Casey walking down the hall at school, or practicing her dance routine in the living room. Random moments of Casey, that Derek had collected.

Then the screen flickered back to Derek. "I actually feel pretty stupid. I'm supposed to be invincible to feelings. Use and then cruise, I guess. And now, here I am, stuck in a house, in a room right next to her. " Derek stopped, and sighed. "I think her mission is to knock me down, and prove I won't always get what I want...She has no idea how much she proves that to me, every single time she walks in the room..." Derek ran his fingers through his messy hair, sighed, and after a second reached out to turn off the camera. "And to think I used to feel incapable of love." he whispered. Then the screen went black.

Lizzie turned to look at Casey, who was sitting motionless, with her mouth slightly open.

"Casey?" Lizzie asked. Then she slightly shook Casey. "Casey, breath!" She said, noting that it seemed like Casey was holding her breath. Casey shook her head, but then let out a breath.

"Are you okay?" Lizzie asked. Once again Casey shook her head. Swiftly, Casey got up from her bed.

"Casey?"

"Lizzie, can I just, not have to talk? I kind of want to be alone." Casey said.

"Oh, okay. I'll go." Lizzie said, getting up.

"No, I'm going outside, okay?" But she didn't wait for a reply. She opened her bedroom door, and then closed it behind her. Lizzie could hear her going down the stairs, at a fast pace.

Casey quickly made her way outside. The backyard was huge, and led to a small wood. Casey had been through several times, discovering that it held much more than it seemed. When she had traveled deeper than she meant to, finding it was bigger than it seemed, also, she found, in a cluster of great trees, that let sunlight stream through the branches, letting a warm, inviting glow spread, there was a small pond that held some fish, and next to it in one of the trees, was tire swing.

Casey had learned the way to that place by heart, considering it her own haven. She watched a colorful little fish dart across the pond while she made her way to the swing. She sat down, and began to sway, a warm breeze making her hair flow behind her.

She stared off into space as she swung, trying to wrap her mind around what she had just seen. Of all the things she thought Lizzie might find, that was definitely not one of them. She felt the breeze tickle the back of her neck, and she smiled. Maybe it wasn't what she was expecting, but she definitely wasn't about to be sad about it.

She sat on the swing until she watched the sky start to change from bright blue to pink and purple. She knew she should start back, but she didn't want to. But no matter, she got off the swing and turned to head back. But someone was in her path.

"Hey." Derek said.

Casey couldn't muster anything up to say for a second. Then she was able to say, "How did you know I was here?"

"Well, Lizzie told me about the tape and your reaction, and she asked me to help find you when it started getting dark, and she got worried." he said simply.

"But how'd you know about this place-wait. Did you say she told you about the tape?" Casey said.

"First, who do you think put the tire up? Did it when I was twelve. And second, yeah she told me about the tape."

"Why would she tell you?"

"Well she was holding it in her hand when she ran to me to help look for you, and I asked her about it."

"Oh-"

"Look, I don't want things to be weird, okay. I just-" Derek started, but Casey cut him off in a very unconventional way. She walked toward him, said, "Shut up, Derek." And kissed him.

When she broke away from him, Derek looked stunned. "I'm guessing the tape isn't going to make you uncomfortable."

"Derek, I've seen your tape, but you haven't seen the million and one clips on my digital camera from times when I was just 'fiddling' with it when you were around." She smiled, and wrapped her arms around the back of his neck, resting her head on his shoulder.

So maybe her mind was hoping Lizzie would find a little more than something embarrasing in Derek's room...But really, what does it matter at this point?

The end! Maybe not my best work, but I hope it will do!

Review, loves.

-Tarryn


End file.
